Is Yamashita Tomohisa's newest flame his sister's teacher?

There is some interesting development regarding the new girlfriend of Yamashita Tomohisa (25) we have reported about here and here.

After learning that the foreign girl he seems to be dating is a French woman, the tabloid Tokyo Sports has now found out that she is also his sister, Yamashita Rina's (23) English teacher.

A friend of Yamashita Tomohisa revealed this interesting little tidbit, which tells us a lot about how he got to meet her in the first place. He is living together with his family at a large apartment and thus it was inevitable for him to get to know his sister's English teacher.

"She was supposed to teach Rina English, but he often joined their private lessons in order to improve his English as well. This is the main reason why he has gotten so much better within just half a year. At the same time she must have become more than just a teacher to him..." the friend explained

If what his friend is saying is true, then Rina must have been just as surprised about their relationship as us. While she might have already grasped the situation, since it's impossible to keep such a secret from your siblings, it probably was only after the articles and pictures in the tabloids that she fully realized what was going on between her brother and her teacher.

The pictures we have seen so far clearly show a certain degree of intimacy that could hint at more than just friendship between Yamashita and the French woman, but his agency Johnny's keeps on denying that there is anything going on between them. They commented, "She is a friend who taught him English. There is absolutely no further relationship beyond that."

Source: Tokyo Sports

Note: The picture is from "anan Vol.1597" (2008.2.13) and completely unrelated to the woman in question.